The wristwatch that 'saved Scientology': Newly discovered letters by founder L. Ron Hubbard tell how he nearly died on boat trip from Washington to Alaska

The Church of Scientology might have never been founded if it had not been for a $1.39 wristwatch, little-known letters penned by the church's founder have disclosed.

L. Ron Hubbard and his first wife Polly were traveling across the sea between Washington and Alaska in a sailboat during a 1940 expedition when they encountered intense winds and rough waves.

In newly unearthed correspondence with the Manhattan-based Explorer's Club, Hubbard stated that the equipment on their 34-foot-long ship failed and they were left with no sense of time or place.

The only device that remained functional was Hubbard's watch -- which he said, in a note to the club, 'was used for all navigating purposes for three months.' Had it not been for that timepiece, he and his wife might've wandered off into the sea never to be heard from again.

Letters and other artifacts L. Ron Hubbard sent to the New York-based Explorers Club reveal that he and his first wife nearly died during a sea voyage in 1940

At least that was how Hubbard described the voyage that nearly ended Scientology when it was it was in its formative stages.

That tale was among the revelations about the controversial author of 'Dianetics' after a Newsweekreporter combed through an archival file on Hubbard, containing letters, documents and artifacts kept by the Explorers Club on East 70th Street near Park Avenue, of which he was a longtime member.

The club is a society of adventurers and researchers that counts among its members the explorer who Indiana Jones was modeled after. Hubbard attended its meetings and sent word back to his fellow club members about his exploits abroad decades ago.

His writings to the organization provide a fascinating glimpse into Hubbard the man, as opposed to the legend.

Correspondence Hubbard sent to the Explorers Club raises questions about his military service during the Second World War

Letters he sent to The Explorers Journal, as well as his response to a survey of the club's members, offer new insight into Hubbard's much-debated World War II service, according to the Newsweek report.

Whereas Hubbard has claimed to have seen combat early on in the conflict, during which the ship he was on was sank and he was posted for a time in the Philippines, an issue of the club's journal points out that Hubbard's orders were canceled and he was sent home to the state of Washington at the beginning of the war.

He was later called up for active duty, but was stationed on a ship that patrolled the coast and the Navy reassigned him after he reportedly opened fire on a log and on an island off Mexico.

In this 1966 photo, L. Ron Hubbard, at that point a millionaire, bids farewell to his staff after the government of Rhodesia forced him out of the country

At one point Hubbard reported that he had not done any heroic deeds and described his service as consisting of 'sailing aimlessly around looking at water and islands.'

In 1947 Hubbard said on a club questionnaire, under 'distinctions achieved,' that he had done 'nothing extraordinary, or worth listing,' and wrote that he failed the physical to achieve a higher rank. 'Less said about 1941-1946 the better,' he wrote.

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His dispatches to the club stand in contrast with how his church characterizes Hubbard's wartime service, casting him as a combat hero who commanded warships before he was hospitalized as a blind, crippled vet. Hubbard later said he cleared the mental blocks that had kept him ill, leading to the discovery of the methodology behind Scientology.

Other items the news magazine discovered in the archive were the Explorers Club flags -- which have been flown by the likes of Roy Chapman Andrews, Thor Heyerdahl and Charles Lindbergh -- and which Hubbard raised on his ships during his oceanic journeys in the 1960s and early 1970s, when Scientology was facing public scrutiny and federal investigations.